The Glenlivet Distillery Distillery

The Glenlivet distillery lies near the valley of the Livet river, in Speyside. It was founded in 1824, by George Smith who rented property from the Duke of Richmond & Gordon. He profited from the new laws concerning Whisky production licenses.

Glenlivet distillery became the first licensed distillery in Scotland. Business went very well during the next several years, and Smith bought 4 more farms and built more distilleries. In 1871, Smith passed away, leaving behind a very successful career, and his son John Gordon, who took over management.

John had to deal with other distilleries calling themselves Glenlivet. In 1880, he managed to get the rights of the name 'The Glenlivet'. In 1890, a fire destroyed the distillery, but a resilient John Gordon took advantage of this misfortune, and expanded the distillery.

Up until the 1970s, the distillery had been passed on to the next generations. But after Seagrams bought The Glenlivet Distillers Ltd. in 1978, this trend ended. In 2001, Pernod Ricard took over management, after buying Seagrams.

The Glenlivet Distillery uses the water from Josie’s Well. They use a modern mash tun with wooden washbacks, and have 14 stills of different sizes.

After the decommissioning of floor malting in 1966, Crisp Maltings in Portgordon provided the maltings for the distillery. Warehouses of The Glenlivet distillery can hold up to 65,000 casks of Whisky.

Flavour Spiral™

About The Flavour Spiral

oak

sherry

spicy

port

sweet

smoky

honey

beer

vanilla

What does The Glenlivet Distillery taste like?

The Flavour Spiral™ shows the most common flavours that you'll taste in The Glenlivet Distillery Scotch. It's based on all The Glenlivet Distillery drinks in our large database and gives you a chance to taste The Glenlivet Distillery before actually tasting it.

We invented Flavour Spiral™ here at Flaviar to get all your senses involved in tasting drinks and, frankly, because we think that classic tasting notes are boring.

The most densely populated Whisky region in the world sits in a fertile valley of rivers and glens. Home to over half of Scotland’s distilleries, malts from these fifty or so Speyside distilleries are hard to summarize, as there's a lot of flavour variety.

One thing we can say is that they're known for being frugal with peat and lavish with nutty fruit flavours. Apple, pear, honey, vanilla and spice all have a part to play in the Speyside Whiskies. Speyside Whisky also knows its way around a Sherry cask.

Video from The Glenlivet Distillery

Video transcription

Knowing very well that every flourishing distillery is only as reliable as its water source, George Smith built the Glenlivet distillery close to Josie's Well, a natural spring who's mystery matches that of the dark Glenlivet earth from which it bubbles. Winter snow and rain still feed the cascading river livet in the Scottish islands. Its crystal clear water makes its underground journey through mineral rich layers before emerging from the mouth of Josie's Well. Not to be mistaken with a mere trickle, an astounding 3,500 gallons per hour bubble out of the dark earth destined for the distillery. The water is cold, between 5 and 8 degrees, an ideal temperature for easily extracting sugar from the malt. Josie's Well, unchanging and inexhaustible, helps make the Glenlivet what it is, Whisky of exceptional quality that define the taste of the Speyside region. An exceptional single malt begins with a pure water source.